MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

Mose Hole was a pioneer of the styles of play that have come to be known as "Run and Gun," "40 Minutes of Hell," and the like.  His teams shot whenever they were open, which was unusual in that day and age, and ran a defense that he described as "a stratified transitional zone with man-to-man implications." 

It was a good chat with Frank and wooscotsfan.  In fact, it was a good weekend altogether, even with the loss.  It's always nice to see Pat Coleman and Jared Rosenbaum in town, and we had a very nice lunch at the Olde Jaol with Pat, Wooster Booster, ScotsFan, myself, and Calvin fans Oldknight and Goodknight.  CMHScots was planning to join us, but was called away by a family emergency (best wishes, Mike!)  Plus I got to meet wooscotsfan for the first time, and got to see 4 good-to-great basketball games.  And I got to help out Goodwill Industries too.  All in all it wasa good way to spend a weekend.

Happy New Year to everyone! 

[woosterbooster]

Mose Hole was a pioneer of the styles of play that have come to be known as "Run and Gun," "40 Minutes of Hell," and the like.  His teams shot whenever they were open, which was unusual in that day and age, and ran a defense that he described as "a stratified transitional zone with man-to-man implications." 

This is a riot, especially since due to his name, the era, and the rural locale, I've always pictured Mose Hole as half basketball coach and half coon hunter, with a shotgun over his shoulder in case some unwarranted varmint happened to wander into his practices.  Now, I'll have to revamp my opinion, as he was obviously far ahead of the game, and his firing of the shotgun was more likely only to spur his charges on to get out on the break quicker.   

[Pat Coleman]

Pat,

With all due respect, your comment about Port's charge makes  no sense. You basically admit that he was hit from behind.

AFTER he charged. Isn't that important? Did you read my post?

Hostetler only bowled into Port from behind BECAUSE Hunter stood in and took the charge, slowing Port down.

[goscots]

Great game for Marty Bidwell tonight with a career high 20 points. Coupled with his defensive effort against ONU's Badenhop I think he had the best (or at least most consistent) weekend for the Scots. It was also good to see Tom Port get back into the offensive flow.

The Scots return to their crisp passing resulting in 21 assists on 38 baskets (55% versus under 40% yesterday). While Calvin got it down to 12 points a couple of times in the second half there never really seemed to be any doubt about the outcome. Calvin has a good team and looking at the records of other teams in the MIAA I would suspect they will finish high in the standings.


I hope everyone has a good New Year and promising start to 2007.

[wooscotsfan]

All the 12/30 NCAC Final Scores:

Wittenberg 78  IU-Southeast 47
Franklin 80  Wabash 68
Adrian 77  Oberlin 40
Kalamazoo 89  Hiram 81
Wooster 98  Calvin 82

Happy New Year to everyone on D3Hoops!  

[onefan]

Sorry this post is late but I spent the last two days in Wooster without access to a computer. Have reviewed all the NCAC followers comments regarding the Wooster /ONU game and would like to add my "two cents" worth from an OAC fans perpective....I would give the officials an overall poor rating. With a game between two teams the calibur of ONU and Wooster the officials should have been much less a factor and much less visible...Unlike some of the postings I think the stripes stunk up both halves....The oldest ref on the floor had such a bad game that late in the contest he came over to the ONU corner of the gym and threatened to eject some poor kid for heckling when the  culprit was actually some guy standing behind him in the hallway to the locker room. Several Wooster fans that sat in front of me were of the same opinion. Nonetheless, that was one great game, it's ashame the officiating wasn't the same quality as the two teams on the floor....I was absolutely dumbfounded with the intentional foul committed away from the ball right in front of the referee. I was at that end of the court and the Wooster player actually shoved Curtis Brown twice...The ref could have called it the first time but waited until he got shoved to the floor...There was no "flop" to it...Unfortunate that it happened...regarding some comments that several of the Scots had subpar games, I think the focus should be  more on the quality of the team they were playing....ONU plays a stingy defense and their opponents' offense have typically responded accordingly. Hats off to the Scots, they posted a tough 84 points, and the game could have gone either way up until the last ninety seconds. Board play and free throws were the difference...I think if these two teams played ten times they would in all liklihood split evenly....I have attended every ONU game this season with the exception of their their opening two and can tell you that even with the BW whipping that the Bears suffered on their home floor, Wooster is "hands down" the best team they have faced...I fully expect these two teams will meet again in a few months....Best of luck to the Scots for the remainder of the season!

[TigerFan_1973]

I'd like to hear some thoughts on the next DIII poll.

Having beaten Wooster. Witt, and UW-LaCrosse, I think there is a good case to be made for Ohio Northern in spite of the loss to Baldwin-Wallace.

By the way, with the Monday holiday, when will the new poll be out?

TigerFan

[Pat Coleman]

Knock on wood, it will come out Wednesday.

[ScotsFan]

First of all, I just wanted to say it was nice to finally meet up with David, WB, Pat and a couple of calvin supporters as well yesterday.  I was also looking forward to meeting cmhscots and his father, but family comes first.  Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to meet up with you and also wooscotsfan sometime in the near future.

As for the game between Wooster and Calvin, I have to admit, I really didn't follow it all that closely as David and I were having some pretty good conversation during the game and the game itself never really seemed to be in doubt.  David had actually predicted a 20 point lead by Wooster at the half and it nearly came to fruition if not for a couple of treys and some easy layups in the final minute and a half of the 1st half.  Cooper nailed one of his deadly mid-range jumpers as the horn sounded to give the Scots a 16 point cushion at the intermission and Calvin would never get closer than 13 the rest of the way. 

I was pleased to see the Scots come out and put that 2 game losing streak behind them.  Doubt could have easily started creeping in it's ugly head.  I had noticed in the paper the day before that it mentioned this was the 1st two game losing streak by the Scots since the end of the '97-'98 season when Wooster lost in the NCAC championship game and then in the 1st round of the NCAA's.  I was wondering how far we'd have to go to see the last 3 game losing streak so I thought I'd check it out.  Amazingly, Wooster hasn't had a 3 game losing streak during Steve Moore's tenure as the head coach of the Scots!  You have to go all the way back to the year before Coach Moore took over the program (Lu Wims final season of '86-'87) to find a losing streak of 3 games or more and they actually had 3 seperate 3 game losing streaks and a 5 game losing streak in that season alone!  It's pretty impressive the consistency that Moore has brought back to this program when you think that in his 20 years as the head coach at Wooster, the Scots have never endured more than a 2 game losing streak!  And even those don't come around very often.

[ScotsFan]

I'd like to hear some thoughts on the next DIII poll.

Having beaten Wooster. Witt, and UW-LaCrosse, I think there is a good case to be made for Ohio Northern in spite of the loss to Baldwin-Wallace.

TF,

I'd have to agree with you on making a case for ONU being #1 in the next poll.  I just think they have too much ground to make up on Amherst assuming Amherst wins today down in Texas.  That doesn't mean that I don't feel ONU is better than Amherst because in my opinion I feel ONU is the better team.  I saw that David had made his predictions over on the Top 25 board and he predicted the followowing top 10:

1. Amherst
2. Ohio Northern
3. UW-Stevens Point
4. St. Thomas
5. Wooster
6. Whitworth
7. Mississippi College
8. Va. Wesleyan
9. Wittenberg
10. Wm. Paterson

I would agree with his top 3, however, I wouldn't slide Wooster below St. Thomas at this point.  The Tommies' body of work so far this season isn't nearly as impressive as Wooster's to date IMO.  I'd even be inclined to move Mississippi College above St. Thomas into the #5 slot.

In my mind (which doesn't count for much ), ONU is playing like the #1 team in the country right now even though the poll will probably have them at #2 or possibly even #3. 

And as for Wooster, although it sucks to lose,  it's nice to lose the #1 ranking by losing to someone other than Witt for a change!   I'm not all that upset about losing the #1 ranking right now anyways.  I'd much rather see the Scots #1 in that final poll that comes out in March than I am about seeing them staying #1 in January.

[David Collinge]

I'd like to hear some thoughts on the next DIII poll.

Having beaten Wooster. Witt, and UW-LaCrosse, I think there is a good case to be made for Ohio Northern in spite of the loss to Baldwin-Wallace.

Here's part of what I posted on the Top 25 board:

I think this how the new top 10 shakes out:

1. Amherst
2. Ohio Northern
3. UW-Stevens Point
4. St. Thomas
5. Wooster
6. Whitworth
7. Mississippi College
8. Va. Wesleyan
9. Wittenberg
10. Wm. Paterson

I'm not advocating for that lineup (I don't engage in that sort of advocacy), just predicting that's how it will look. 

I expect ONU to pick up some first place votes, maybe 3 to 6 of them, but it probably won't be enough to overcome Amherst (again, presuming the Lord Jeffs win today.)  Whether ONU or Amherst (or Stevens Point) should be #1 is another question, one that is being discussed in the Top 25 room, which is a good place to go to keep up with these kinds of discussions...and I'm not just saying that because I contribute there so frequently! 

NOTE:  ha!  a cross-post!  well, I'll post anyway, so there. 

[pennstghs]

good weekend from witt-yes there are people that care-to come back from the holiday layoff fresh and motivated. the friday score was closer vs York(a NCAA team from last season)than the game actually was and saturday was just no contest against SE-Indiana.

as for the poll i think ONU gets first place votes after beating the caliber of teams that they have. the win over wooster makes the wittenberg loss a little less devastating as if there is such a category that would be a quality loss for both the NCAC teams. if they both play strong and well in conference they should both get in.

[ScotsFan]

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

[TigerFan_1973]

TF,

I'd have to agree with you on making a case for ONU being #1 in the next poll.  I just think they have too much ground to make up on Amherst assuming Amherst wins today down in Texas.  That doesn't mean that I don't feel ONU is better than Amherst because in my opinion I feel ONU is the better team. 

Your point is what I was getting at.   I think the case can be made that ONU is the better team right now, just not one of the last teams to be undefeated.  I don't know anything about teams outside of this region, and I am certainly not any kind of expert in the region.

I like to analyze stuff, though, often overanalyzing. 

It seems that a lot of times in polls, even at the Divison I level that being undefeated can be overrated.  I think that ONU's loss to BW is not indicative of the Polar Bears' strength.  Something about "any given team on any given day" ...

I did not realized that there is a Top 25 board.  I'm off to try to find that.

Thanks.

TigerFan_1973

[TigerFan_1973]

I did not realize that there is a Top 25 board.  I'm off to try to find that.

Thanks.

TigerFan_1973

I found it.  Thanks for pointing it out.

Part of it was the schedule and the way the Mose Hole matchups fell, but it's hard for me to see a stronger bid than ONU right now.  On the one hand, polls are meaningless in sports with a tournament (all but D1 football, I guess, NCAA take note  ), on the other they are interesting fuel for discussion.

As I said, I don't know enough to even comment on a national top 25.  How do people in the Great Lakes region feel, let's say, about the top 5 in the region?

I would have ONU, Wooster, Witt at 1, 2, 3 but I'm not sure from there.

Any thoughts, please?

TF